{"id":74581,"date":"2024-10-18T02:09:04","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T06:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=74581"},"modified":"2024-10-18T02:09:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T06:09:04","slug":"prison-education-is-vital-but-it-is-neglected-and-failing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/prison-education-is-vital-but-it-is-neglected-and-failing\/","title":{"rendered":"Prison education is vital \u2013 but it is neglected and failing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The quality of education in young offender institutions (YOIs) in England has seriously declined, according to\u00a0a recent report<\/a>\u00a0from Ofsted and the prisons inspectorate.<\/p>\n

The report into these institutions, whose offenders are aged 15 to 18, referred to \u201csteadily declining educational opportunities\u201d. Among the failings listed were a lack of time allocated to education, lack of proper staff training, staff shortages and poor behaviour of learners.<\/p>\n

It claimed that the curriculum is narrow, fragmented, and poorly resourced due to lack of investment in technology. Prison leaders do not accurately pinpoint what students need to learn, while learners with special educational needs and disabilities do not always get the support that they need. According to data from 2022, only 8.6% of young people who received custodial sentences\u00a0passed five GCSEs<\/a>, compared to 58.3% of those without convictions.<\/p>\n

Indeed, there are similar issues across the prison system.\u00a0The quality<\/a>\u00a0of education in too many prisons is\u00a0not good enough<\/a>. Research\u00a0suggests prisoners<\/a>\u00a0are often disengaged in classes and education lacks challenge and purpose.<\/p>\n

This is especially disheartening when\u00a0research also shows<\/a>\u00a0that participation in education within prisons can improve learners\u2019 self-esteem and reduce prison violence, as well as increasing the chances of getting a job once offenders are released.<\/p>\n

Teaching reading<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Many adults in prison, as well as children in YOIs, struggle to read. English education inspectorate Ofsted and its prisons counterpart have published two reviews on the teaching of reading in prisons. The\u00a0first report<\/a>, published in 2022, highlighted that many teaching staff did not know how to teach reading.<\/p>\n

Inspectors found that reading teachers did not have suitable resources. There was not enough time for learners to practise reading, and weak assessment resulted in teachers not fully understanding why some learners were struggling to learn to read. Some prisons were over-relying on reading skills being taught by peer mentors, who are only supposed to support learners individually or in small groups.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0second report<\/a>, from 2023, highlighted that although some progress had been made a year later, it was too slow. Inspectors found that teachers still did not know how to improve reading skills. They also found that teachers did not monitor students\u2019 progress, and interventions to support reading, particularly for non-English speakers, were not adequate.<\/p>\n

Special educational needs<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Too many pupils with special educational needs are excluded from schools and\u00a0data shows<\/a>\u00a0that exclusion rates are higher for this group compared to those who do not have special educational needs. Many young people who are excluded from schools\u00a0end up in prison<\/a>, resulting in a high proportion of prisoners who have some form of learning difficulty or disability.<\/p>\n

According to a\u00a0House of Commons report<\/a>\u00a0from 2022, over 30% of prisoners have a learning difficulty or experience learning challenges.<\/p>\n

In 2016 the\u00a0Coates review<\/a>\u00a0of prison education made several recommendations to improve the quality of education in prisons. These included a focus on special educational needs \u2013 improving the assessment of educational needs on entry and more rigorous screening for prisoners with learning difficulties or disabilities.<\/p>\n

The review recommended that all prisoners should have a personal learning plan. Also, better quality teachers were needed and prisons needed to find ways of improving attendance in education classes<\/p>\n

Coates recommended that learners with special educational needs and disabilities needed better quality support and that prisoners needed to be able to continue their courses when they moved prisons. Unfortunately,\u00a0evidence shows<\/a>\u00a0that in many prisons these recommendations have not been addressed.<\/p>\n

Making changes<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Another problem is that the growing prison population has led to overcrowding, resulting in\u00a0poor conditions<\/a>\u00a0which make studying difficult.<\/p>\n

Work with prisoners<\/a>\u00a0by charities such as the Prison Reform Trust and the Prisoners\u2019 Education Trust highlights some important recommendations which will improve the quality of education in prisons. These include widening the curriculum in prisons so that prisoners can select options from a wider range of courses.<\/p>\n

One recommendation is to provide better incentives to prisoners to encourage them to study. This could be done by paying them the same weekly \u201cwage\u201d as prisoners who choose work-related activities. Increasing the number of learning mentors will help ensure that prisoners get the support they need.<\/p>\n

Finally, introducing flexible education timetables would mean that education classes can also run in the evenings as well as during the day. This will mean that more prisoners can take part in education classes, because more classes can be timetabled across the day. Prisoners who work during the day will be able to take part in education in the evenings.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0the Prison Education Trust<\/a>\u00a0digital technology \u201cremains the essential ingredient that would revolutionise prison education\u201d. And prisoners need to be\u00a0supported and encouraged<\/a>\u00a0if they are going to achieve their full educational potential.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Jonathan Glazzard is the Rosalind Hollis Professor of Education for Social Justice at the University of Hull<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The quality of education in young offender institutions (YOIs) in England has seriously declined, according to\u00a0a recent report\u00a0from Ofsted and the prisons inspectorate. The report into these institutions, whose offenders are aged 15 to 18, referred to \u201csteadily declining educational opportunities\u201d. Among the failings listed were a lack of time allocated to education, lack of […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15645],"tags":[65861],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-74581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-prison-education"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPrison education is vital \u2013 but it is neglected and failing - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/prison-education-is-vital-but-it-is-neglected-and-failing\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prison education is vital \u2013 but it is neglected and failing - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The quality of education in young offender institutions (YOIs) in England has seriously declined, according to\u00a0a recent report\u00a0from Ofsted and the prisons inspectorate. 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